Following a speculative complaint from an Indiana teenager, the governor of the state, Matthew Welsh, sent a message to the Indiana Broadcasters Association ambiguously mentioning that the public would basically be better off if The Kingsmen‘s slurring rock and roll classic “Louie Louie” would simply not be played on this day in February of 1965. What lyrics of the love song about a down-and-out sailor lamenting the missing of his far-off girl to a bartender ’caused his ears to “tingle,” Welsh did not say. One wooden slate on the bandwagon that it would become, the idea that the song was pornographic would actually make it into an FBI lab to disprove. The result, a year and a half later: “Unintelligible at any speed.” Let that be a lesson to all you fire-stokers – slur your speech. To subversive lyric porn:

A fine little girl, she waits for me
Catch a ship across the sea
Sail that ship about, all alone
Never know if I make it home

Louie Louie, oh no no no
Sayin’ we gotta go, oh no
Said Louie Louie, oh baby
Said we gotta go

About Gavin Paul

Gavin Paul is SONGLYRICS' resident Content Guru. Chicago-bred, New York-sculpted, his words and ideas have appeared in publications ranging from Spin and Rolling Stone to The Chicago Sun-Times and Arborist News.